"I will offer you the benefit of my advice, my lord Amir, and nothing more. Whether you choose to accept my advice is up to you." She smiled prettily at him, and her teeth were very white.

He had to laugh. "You are not very subtle," he told her.

"I will be a good wife to you, my lord. I know that my first duty is to give you a son. I will do it as quickly as I can," she swore. Then she took up her cloak, and drew it about her. "Kansbar's magic will not hold past the dawn, and the night wanes, my lord Amir. Come to my father's palace beneath a flag of truce today. He will not, despite my cousin, refuse you. And you must insist we be wed as quickly as possible. Do not allow Haroun to delay our marriage while he considers ways to thwart you. He is not particularly intelligent, but he has the slyness of a dishonest peasant. Both he and his favorite, Golnar, are wicked. They would stop at nothing to gain Dariyabar. That is why you must act quickly. Will you trust me in this, Amir Khan?"

"In this matter I shall heed your advice, Zuleika of Dariyabar," he told her. "Meeting you tonight has been both a surprise and a delight."

She gave him a final quick smile, and then disappeared through the entry of his tent into the moonlit night. Curious, he moved to watch her go. Her shadow passed swiftly through the maze of tents until he could see it no more. He stepped back into his pavilion and poured himself a goblet of wine. What had just happened here? Was it real, or had he imagined it all? No. His male member was still tingling from her bold attentions. Zuleika of Dariyabar had indeed been in his tent tonight.

He would take her to wife. Aye, he would! He had no wife. He had barely had time for any woman, particularly in the last three years. She was beautiful. She was clever. And she would give him Dariyabar! But she was right when she said her cousin, Haroun, would attempt to stop them. Haroun, who had encouraged his cousins to take up arms against Amir Khan, thereby insuring their demises while he remained within the safety of his city's walls to become his uncle's only male heir. The man was a coward, and he was a bully.